Could you become a part time market trader?

The first and foremost question you should be asking yourself before you provide even your email alone to a broker, is, can I hand the rest of myself over to the markets?

You will be living, sleeping, breathing, the stock market. From ticker charts to breaking news. Forget what all the life coaches and those in their super cars tell you; the first couple of years will own you, dominate your free time, jeopardize your relationships and test your emotions, giving you wild rides between fear, greed and doubt, to name a few. Of course, however, in years to come you may well have a super car or be running your own trading company; that journey is down to you.

The markets never sleep, and neither will you, unless you research, learn and develop your own skills and understanding of how markets work, as your very own investment manager. The decisions you make throughout your journey as a day trader will be down to you, and you alone. You cannot blame others for their incorrect analysis, the breaking news that shook the market, the last guy in the chat room that said a recent tech stock was taking off, yet it collapsed the next day.

So do your part, invest in educating yourself, even more so than what you invest in the markets. I truly believe your own learning and theories are key to being successful. I myself, had the very first and worst mistake a new trader will ever make; I came across a post with a lad and his super car saying how he quit work and now makes more than he could ever imagine, thousands of pounds per week in fact. I hopped online, read a couple of posts and blogs, then within a few days some salesman from a leading Forex broker was on the phone to me every single day for the next month. Asking me time and time again that if I was to get a credit card and deposit £500 it could change my life forever, he even promised that I would receive 3 times the amount back within my first 3 months. This came at a time in my life where I hated my job, I was struggling to make ends meet, basically I didn’t have a pot to piss in. Luckily, I did not get another credit card, but I did however max out my current credit card, I took the bait. I was promised a market guru to guide me along the way which did happen perhaps once a fortnight for 1 single pointer for example, he showed me how to use a “Fibonacci retracement” which did not help when I was already showing £100 losses in my first couple of weeks, I couldn’t exit the trade as I just could not afford to be losing this money. Eventually I lost my whole account balance and with my next £20 savings I bought a book.

“A beginners Guide to Day Trading”

If my experience is anything to go by, to summarize, it is more important to decide if you can dedicate hours of time and effort into teaching yourself a new skill and fit this around your current working and family life than it is to work out how much money you can throw at day trading. You genuinely cannot enter the market and expect to profit without knowledge. Okay, those with £10,000+, a super network and some AI trading platforms to rely on, may well profit without knowledge however, we are the working class, so we must understand that we are in a different league all together, especially when it comes to investing.

If this all sounds like something for you, definitely stay positive, buy the book I mentioned above.

Stay in touch, I am keen to continue blogging on Steem and gradually add more insights, experiences and even tips on finding the right broker, making the right deposit at the right time and how to stay in control of your finances whilst learning this, (in some cases) expensive hobby.

I am happy to talk markets and answer related queries anyone may have.
I can be reached anytime on LinkedIn and Telegram too.

xo xo steemians, look forward to connecting!

P.S The image was indeed my best efforts on Photoshop!